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Common Core's forgotten discipline? Social studies gets an update in NY

Social studies has been a forgotten discipline with so much energy expended on erecting the Common Core standards for math and English and promoting the importance of STEM education. But it may be heading for a mini-renaissance in New York state.

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Common Core's forgotten discipline? Social studies gets an update in NY

Gary Stern, 11:59 p.m. EDT June 2, 2014

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Susan Chester, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Hommocks Middle School in Mamaroneck,, is photographed in her class, May 29, 2014. New York State has created it's own "framework" for teaching social studies. Chester was named the 2013 state Middle School Social Studies Teacher of the Year.(Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)Buy Photo

New York state's official curriculum for social studies includes no mention of Sept. 11, 2001. Or the Great Recession. Or the debate over the Affordable Care Act.

That's because it was written in 1996.

Social studies has been a forgotten discipline with so much energy expended on erecting the Common Core standards for math and English and promoting the importance of STEM education (that's science, technology, engineering and math for you bookworms and art historians).

But don't forget your colonial history or map legends. Social studies may be heading for a mini-renaissance in New York.

The state Board of Regents recently adopted a new "framework" for social studies, a guide to what students should know and be able to do from kindergarten through high school. The document, shaped by a group of 19 New York educators, stops short of offering a full curriculum in hopes that schools will make local choices about, say, which ancient river-valley civilizations to study in sixth grade.

Susan Chester, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Hommocks Middle School in Mamaroneck, talks about the new "framework" implemented as part of the Common Core. (Video by Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

"Social studies was sort of left behind," said Steve Goldberg, social studies chairman at New Rochelle High School, who led the educators panel. "We wanted to give schools strong guideposts for each grade, leaving it to them to figure out how to teach the material. We also wanted to avoid the public storms around the Common Core, and I think we made it through."

The most significant change proposed is still up in the air: Breaking the ninth- and 10th-grade Global History sequence into two courses, with a Regents exam covering only 10th-grade material.

Social studies is a Godzilla of a "subject" to tame. For one thing, it's an amalgam in New York of history, geography, civics and economics, and well-meaning scholars inevitably disagree about what should be taught. If there's a common concern, it's that schools try to cover too much.

The new framework does not make radical changes. It avoids tampering with the major themes covered in each grade — like the Revolutionary period in New York during fourth grade — because doing so would have been too hard on schools during a period of constant flux.

The document instead seeks to streamline and update what students need to know. It's organized around up to a dozen key ideas in each grade, like the "rise and impact of belief systems" in ninth grade.

"I've had to convince our teachers that this is a good thing," said Lois Gordon, the retiring coordinator of social studies for the White Plains schools. "They're gun shy because of the Common Core. This is an intelligent and thoughtful approach that will do good things for our kids."

Gordon likes, for instance, that the two years of American history in seventh and eighth grades will split after the Civil War rather than Reconstruction.

"There's a cliffhanger aspect," she said. "What happens now?"

The framework incorporates big-picture Common Core standards for reading and writing, like the need for students to cite evidence and support arguments in their work. It also borrows from a new national social studies guide that emphasizes student inquiry — developing questions and evaluating sources.

Susan Chester, a teacher at Hommocks Middle School in Mamaroneck, said social studies should get credit for long focusing on the research skills that Common Core has pushed to the forefront.

"So much of what we do mirrors the Common Core — the close reading of documents, backing up arguments, looking at multiple perspectives," said Chester, New York's Middle School Social Studies Teacher of the Year for 2013. "The framework correctly emphasizes the skills kids need."

The educators panel received some 1,500 written comments about where to take its work, including 63 pages on Global History alone. Some commenters, not to mention panelists, wanted to see the state further reduce the mass of material New York schools cover.

But Goldberg said the goal is to refocus attention on social studies, which has waned since the state in 2010 eliminated tests in the fourth and eighth grades. A 2011 study by the NYU Law School blamed a growing "civil illiteracy" in New York on the inattention of schools.

Goldberg is hopeful that the state Education Department will soon release clear expectations for school districts to use the framework. The state plans to release a guide by early fall to help districts.

"We don't want it to sit on a shelf," Goldberg said.

Jonathan Burman, spokesman for the Education Department, said the framework has received broad support from teachers, "so we are confident that local school districts will move quickly to use it."

Goldberg also wants to see the state begin working to split the overly weighty ninth- and 10th-grade Global History sequence. The panel proposed that a ninth-grade course still be required and capped with a local test. A new Regents exam would have to be developed for 10th grade, which would start with case studies of India, the Ottoman Empire, Japan and France in 1750.

A new Regents exam for U.S. History is also anticipated.

Burman said that decisions about revamped Regents exams will be made during the next school year.

Michael St. John, coordinator of secondary education for the Clarkstown schools, said there is normal uncertainty among teachers about the new tests.

"But teachers will have had time to get used to the changes," he said. "It's a different ball game than with the other Common Core tests."

The new framework includes several references to Sept. 11, 2001, including asking students to trace the fallout from the attacks.